Gender Dysphoria

What is causing gender confusion? Can anything be done to prevent it? Sally Fallon Morell, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, covers today how to promote healthy hormonal function, based on Wise Traditions journal from the winter of 2022.

Sally today reviews the fact that nutrition is foundational for optimal hormonal function. She advises we eat a diet replete with the right fats, whole raw milk, and include plenty of red meat and eggs from pastured animals. She discusses the hormone disruptors found in our food and environment: including seed oils and plastic. She also talks about the problems with sex change operations and puberty-blocking drugs.

(Please note that this conversation may not be suitable for the littlest ears.)

Purchase your copy of Wise Traditions Journal Winter 2022 Edition

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Check out Sally’s blog at nourishingtraditions.com

Listen to Wise Traditions podcast 260 with Dr. Anthony Jay: Life in Plastic…Not Fantastic

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Episode Transcript

Within the below transcript the bolded text is Hilda Labrada Gore and the regular text is Sally Fallon Morell.

Gender confusion seems to be a growing issue in our society and the world. In this episode, we tackle the delicate subject of gender dysphoria, what contributes to it and approaches for its prevention. This is episode 433 and our guest is Sally Fallon Morrell, author, real food advocate and the President of The Weston A. Price Foundation. With Sally, we review the issue of the Wise Traditions Journal that came out that has a focus on optimal hormonal balance, especially for our children. Sally discusses the factors that may be leading to gender confusion for young people. She reminds us that nutrition is foundational for optimal hormonal function, including getting the right fats in the body, drinking whole raw milk and eating plenty of red meat and eggs from pastured animals.

Sally discusses hormone disruptors that are found in our food and our environment, including seed oils and plastic. She also covers the problems with sex change operations and puberty-blocking drugs. With this, please note that this conversation may not be suitable for children. Finally, please keep in mind that there is no condemnation or judgment here, just insights to support healthy hormonal balance.

Before we dive into the conversation, you can order this particular issue of The Wise Traditions Journal through The Weston A. Price Foundation’s website for only $12. Also, please consider becoming a member because when you do, you get four journals a year full of wonderful, valuable scientific information and practical tips for healthy living the Wise Traditions way. It’s only $30 a year when you join using the code POD10. Thank you and welcome to the family.

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Purchase your copy of Wise Traditions Journal Winter 2022 edition

Become a member of The Weston A. Price Foundation

Check out Sally’s blog

Wise Traditions Episode 260 with Dr. Anthony Jay: Life in Plastic… NOT Fantastic

See our sponsors: Pluck and Optimal Carnivore

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Welcome to the show, Sally.

Thank you, Hilda. It’s great to be back.

These episodes where we review the journal are very well received because the journal is hefty and has a lot of scientific information and sometimes, it’s too much for the layperson.

We do try to balance, Hilda. We always have a few science-y articles, which we feel we’re obligated to have. The front part with the letters, the cause of commentary and then the back part of the journal is for the layman and it’s much more practical.

There are articles about shopping, feeding your family and farming. The journal that came out is about hormone health, is that right?

That’s right. We did this to set the request of several members to address the issue that we’re reading about everywhere of gender dysphoria.

Can you define that term?

It’s young people confused about what gender they are or uncomfortable with the gender they are and wanting to change their gender. We did not do this to be critical or anything like that but it’s hard enough growing up in this world. It’s confusing enough. There are enough challenges without having the additional challenge of being confused about your gender. It’s often a very tragic lifestyle for these young people and heartbreaking for the parents.

The parents support and love their children but it is very difficult for the parents. We thought that it would be good to address what the causes of this could be because it is something that’s suddenly on everybody’s radar. The question is, “Is this happening more frequently? If so, why?” That’s what we hope to do with this journal. With a certain amount of trepidation, I can tell you but we felt that we could not ignore the subject and so far, we’ve had nothing but appreciation for this journal.

I’m sure some parents are confused about why their children are confused and wondering.

What is causing this? Is it just ideas or a trend? Is it something that we’re reading about so it’s happening or is it because children are being encouraged in this direction? Is it the case that more and more of our young people are genuinely confused about whether they’re a boy or a girl and wondering if they’d be happier if they change their sex?

I wrote the lead article Ensuring Optimal Hormonal Development In Your Child and I learned a lot. Nutrition is key. We know that for optimal development of everything in the body, the nutrition of both parents has to be ideal with a big emphasis on fat-soluble vitamins. What I did learn was that the genitals are formed during weeks 3 to 6 in the womb. The heart is the first thing that’s formed. That starts forming in about eight days.

If vitamin A is not sufficient in the mother, the heart will not form properly. It’s the same with everything else, the teeth, eyes and bones. It’s the same with the genitals. The default position is female. For the male to develop, a lot more has to happen. The genitals of the male are formed out of the female genitals and then they move forward. They have a little test. They measure between the base of the penis and the anus to see if that distance is normal. It depends on nutrition, good fats and all the vitamins and minerals. The moms need to be following our diet to make sure that that happens.

This is so interesting, Sally, because I thought you were going to say how a child is fed affects their hormonal health but you’re saying, even in utero, how the mother is eating and perhaps even how the father was before conception affects this baby’s hormonal health and development.

Yes, but there’s more and this is what was interesting to me. The development of the genitals is one part of this but the other thing is the brain. The male brain is different from the female brain. There’s a part of the hypothalamus and the hypothalamus is the master gland. It’s very deep in the head that controls all the other glands. In males, there is a certain part of this gland that’s about twice as big as the female. There is a male brain, as any woman can tell you.

I was like, “Why is my husband so different than me?” Now I know.

There is a different structure of the hypothalamus. In females and homosexual men, it’s about half the size. The man who discovered this, his name was Dick Swan and he discovered this back in the ‘80s. I remember reading about this in the ‘80s. He was very pessimistic. He said that it’s not the social milieu, what they’re exposed to at school or the way their father or their mother. It all happens in the womb. It can’t be changed after that.

I’m not so pessimistic, especially when a child goes through puberty, a lot of things change. Apparently, there’s a period from age 2 to 4 where this priming of the male brain also takes place but a lot happens in the womb. This is another reason for the mom to be so careful about her diet while she’s pregnant. It is fascinating.

We’re not the only culture where this happens. The Native Americans had occasionally men that were sort of feminine and they were not treated well at all. They had to stay in the camp. They weren’t allowed to hunt. They were bossed around by the women. They had to do all the chores, carrying the wood and all this stuff. They’ve had a hard time in every culture. It’s not new. It’s something that happens but it’s not a fun lifestyle either.

Let’s say a baby boy is born with that hypothalamus part of the brain smaller than it should be. Do you think that still with some changes in lifestyle and nutrition that child can be raised in such a way that they have a healthy hormonal development and feel good in their own skin?

I certainly hope so but this is where you get these perplexing behaviors. A child who’s born and he is a boy. The genitals are normal but he wants to wear girls’ clothes or play with dolls. The parents don’t know what to do about this. Most of them honor what he wants to do. Although in some cases, you get a strict father or something and it’s horrible for this child. There is another window between ages 2 and 4 when this priming of the brain continues. There’s certainly the possibility that this can be counteracted and then in the teenage years, the whole brain gets rewired. That’s why teenagers can be so difficult. There’s that possibility as well.

I always come back to the diet. I’m not saying they’re not other influences but especially getting the right fats, whole milk, butter, some liver, red meat, eggs and always from the pastured animals. Another thing I discovered when I was writing this article and I did not know this before is there is as much estrogen in a tablespoon of soybean oil as there is in a birth control pill. That’s a jaw-dropping revelation. All fast food is going to have this soybean oil in it. A serving of chicken nuggets or French fries is going to have the estrogenic levels of a birth control pill.

There is as much estrogen in a tablespoon of soybean oil as there is in a birth control pill.

If a man is getting that much estrogen in his body, it’s bound to affect his hormonal health, is what I hear you saying. This reminds me of years ago I interviewed a guest who said something about toxins in the water creating these intersex fish. I’m getting all the pieces. Toxins or food that is not nourishing and building the body but is rather breaking it down is going to destabilize our hormonal health and function.

After all, you have the whole spectrum. You have girls that are tomboys but they still grow up to be women. They still want to have children. You have men who are what we would call gentle and not quite so aggressive as a normal male but they’re still men. They have families, wives and so forth. You have the whole spectrum. It becomes very difficult for the individual when there’s such confusion. It’s not that we want to criticize or be unfair to anyone but at the same time, parents would like to know what they can do to prevent this if possible.

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Coming up, Sally discusses the hormone-disrupting effects of plastic, sunscreen and fluoride and why these should be avoided.

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Is there anything else you’d like to touch on from that article in particular or some of the complimentary articles on the same topic?

The whole issue is devoted to this subject. We also had a real interesting article from Anthony Jay, Living In The “Plasticene”: the Plastic Age, who is going to be a speaker again at our conference in 2023. He’s writing about all of the estrogenic substances. One of the things that need to be avoided is sunscreen. Sunscreen is very estrogenic and may even contain testosterone blockers. You do not want to be putting sunscreen on your little boys or little girls either. There are parents who put it on every day, not realizing the dangers.

WT 433 | Dysphoria — Dysphoria: Sunscreen is very estrogenic and may even contain testosterone blockers.

It’s because they’ve been told to protect their child from the sun.

The sun, cholesterol, saturated fats and all the things we need we’ve been told are dangerous. It’s created a society with a lot of confusion in it and a lot of unhappiness.

Didn’t Anthony Jay write a book called Estrogenation?

He may have.

We’ve had him on the show before. We have an episode called Life in Plastic… NOT fantastic.

He’s also going to speak on fluoride at the conference. That too is a thyroid disruptor. The thyroid gland is very much involved in a delicate balance of hormones, which goes in one direction for women and another direction for men. Women have testosterone in their bloodstream and men have estrogen in their bloodstream. It’s not that we’re supposed to be super feminine or masculine. It’s the balance that we’re talking about.

Stay away from soybean oil and sunscreen. Is there something else that stands out to you?

All the plastics in our cookware. It’s impossible to avoid them but there are certain things that we can’t do.

I remember Anthony saying when they moved away from BPA because everyone said BPA is bad. They picked another chemical that has the same effect on the body and stocked that in instead.

You wouldn’t want to drink water from plastic bottles, for example, because not only the bottle is plastic but they’ve been sitting in a hot warehouse in Nevada somewhere. When you’re using plastic, you want to make sure it’s in cold situations and use glass whenever you can. The other thing we had in here was a review by Merinda Teller of the book Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier. Merinda also wrote an article that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck about what happens in these sex change surgeries. You’re castrating the boys and giving hysterectomies to the girls. This is when they’re 12 or 13. They have no idea what the consequences of this are. It’s all about the money.

The number of women having hysterectomies has gone down because women have figured out that this may not be such a good thing. The hysterectomy is typically associated with Alzheimer’s later on. They’re filling the gap by giving hysterectomies to these young girls who think they want to be boys. They’re also using a terrible drug. It’s called puberty-blocking drugs, which have many serious side effects including depression. The book sheds light on that and then Merinda also does this article called Reading Between the Lines. She did it during these sex change surgeries. Parents need to read this article. The people don’t realize what is happening in these surgeries and the drugs that these kids are taking often without their parents knowing.

The minors can get permission?

They are getting it one way or another.

Some people see it as a biological right to choose the sex that you are. It’s like reproductive health. Sometimes, they will give condoms and birth control pills to minors behind their parents’ backs because they think they’re helping them. Is that possible that the development community did something here?

It’s happening behind the parents’ backs. In some states, they don’t need parental permission to do these operations. First of all, it’s major surgery and irreversible. We have a letter in the letter section from a gal who went through this surgery and has deep regrets. She wants to be a woman. She wants to have a man in her life. She said, “Will I ever have a man in my life because I’m sterile? I’ve had my breasts cut off. I’ve taken drugs that make me look and sound masculine. I made a huge mistake. I was talked into it.” This is what’s happening to these kids. It’s not that if they want to do this when they’re 18 or 20, then go ahead. When you’re 12 or 13, a lot of kids aren’t even sexualized yet so they can’t make this decision.

The woman who wrote the letter, was underage when she made some of these decisions.

Yes. The article is called Big Gender Means Business: Behind the Euphemisms, A Dark Agenda. A lot of people supporting this are the World Economic Forum types who believe there are too many people in the world. This is a way of sterilizing young people, which is what’s happening.

These people are not going to have children or offspring.

Yes, this is what’s happening. It’s the drugs, the surgery and what they do. They’re not told. They’re told, “We’re going to give you this drug and it’ll make you better. You’ll be happier.” They’re not. Suicide is very high among these young people who have this gender dysphoria. Drug use is very high.

Suicide is very high among young people with gender dysphoria drug use.

They feel like they’re in the wrong body. Some of them go through with surgery to make that happen and they’re still depressed and anxious. It doesn’t resolve the issue. However, going back to nutrition, I’ve heard you say many times that when we’re well-nourished, it boosts our mood and hormonal function. That is a step in the right direction of recovering better mental health to maybe make a better decision when it comes to this.

It comes back in the case of the parents to eating properly when you’re pregnant, a nutrient-dense diet. If you’re trying to follow the dietary guidelines, you’re putting your children in danger of gender dysphoria. Let me put it like that. Our diet, which goes against everything they’re telling you, pollutes things like raw milk and plenty of salt. All these things are important. Continuing as best they can as your children grow certainly up to the age of 4 or 5, you have control over their diet. That window from 2 to 4 is very important for male development. Throughout high school, I know it’s hard, mom and dad but believe me, I’ve been there. If what they get at home is good, you have a chance of making sure they end up as healthy, high-functioning, happy adults.

You can’t say they might not trade their lunch at school but when they’re home, you can ensure that you’re giving them the most nutrients.

Good breakfast and dinner. That’s 2 out of 3. I always made my kids lunches, whether they ate them. I’ll never know probably. On my deathbed, they’ll tell me. That’s what I’ll ask them, “Did you eat the lunches I made for you?” They all turned out fine. That’s what we want for our children. There’s a huge responsibility on the part of the parents to make that happen. At the same time, as Tom Cowan and I say, “It’s not that hard to make bacon and eggs for your kids for breakfast. It’s not that hard to bake potatoes for dinner or use butter instead of margarine.”

Once you go there, you don’t want to go back because it tastes so good. It’s nutritious and delicious, I feel like. Is there anything else you want to touch on here? We didn’t do the caustic commentary, which we sometimes do.

One thing I want to say is we always have an article in homeopathy and there are some homeopathic remedies for shall we say gender confusion. That was very interesting. This whole issue is devoted to this subject and hopefully, it gets into the hands of young people before they have their children so they can make sure that hormonal development is balanced. There’s no judgment here at all.

I love that, Sally. I sensed that when you were saying, “If a child isn’t happy in their body, you wouldn’t be super strict and try to force them to do something.” You want to enable them to have a happy life by giving them a balanced diet for better hormonal health.

Also, fulfilling life. All of us have something we’re supposed to accomplish in our life. That’s what we want to enable our children to do.

All of us have something we’re supposed to accomplish in our life. That’s what we want to enable our children to do.

With as few hindrances as possible.

As I say, it’s hard enough growing up, especially with all of the challenges, confusion and everything going on out there. To put in that mix and gender confusion is a huge burden for young people.

I feel your heart. I love that you are for families and children and happy, healthy people. I want to pose to you the question I’d like to pose at the end here. If the audience could do one thing to improve their health or perhaps to improve their hormonal health, what would you recommend that they do?

It’s always the same answer. Eat butter and please avoid vegetable oils. Usually, they’re soybean oil but they’re all bad. Soybean oil is 80% of all the oil used in processed food and it’s a gender bender. Soybean oil should not be in the diet at all.

Thank you so much for this time, for your hard work and for speaking up on a challenging topic.

So far so good. People have been very grateful that we did this issue.

I am too. Thank you, Sally.

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Our guest was Sally Fallon Morell. Visit her website to check out her blog. You can find me and my resources at Holistic Hilda. For a Letter to the Editor from the Winter ‘22 Journal. “I am ex-trans or a de-transitioner and had surgery. After changing my diet and working on my health from a holistic approach including adding meat to my formerly pescatarian diet, I realized I was a woman all along. Believing I was non-binary was due to trauma and a disconnect with my body. As I testified before the Florida Board of Medicine in October of 2022 prior to my transition, I had spent twenty years in mental health therapy with conventional modalities.”

“I didn’t respond well to medications. I saw a gender therapist and had two rounds of TMS, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation therapy. I was diligent and wanted to heal but nothing my doctors offered had healed me because they always saw my issues strictly as a mental health one. I was 30 and at the end of my rope when I transitioned. At that time, I believed I was non-binary. I struggled with severe mental illness and suicidal ideation. I had a trauma history. When I was in sixth grade, my best friend had been assaulted by her brother. Being a girl meant I was more vulnerable. I started to act more masculine. This should have been a red flag. Yet within a month of requesting top surgery, it was performed on me.”

“I developed complications after my surgery. There were many times I didn’t know if I would make it through the night. If I made this mistake as an adult, a young girl could too. Not only did my surgery exacerbate my mental health issues but I struggle with physical complications as well. Taking on another gender was a way for me to escape womanhood. Escape is not a valid way of dealing with trauma. You will have to deal with it eventually. I was able to work through these difficult emotions and improve my mental health through a holistic approach. I had physical health issues that had been previously overlooked.”

“Had that been managed, I would never have gotten the surgery. This surgery was a horrible misdiagnosis. The goal of healthcare should always be to get to the root cause of the problem. I am more grounded than I have been my entire life but I am mutilated. Between my carved-up body and the physical complications, I often question whether there was anything on the other side, where my breasts were or hollow. I can never get them back. I can never fit a dress the same way again. I can never breastfeed. Who will love me? Do you know what keeps me going? Stopping this from happening to someone else. You can find me on social media through The Get Better Researcher.”

This is a letter from Camille. Camille, thank you for being so open with us. You too can write a Letter to the Editor by writing us at Info@WestonAPrice.org. Put Letter to the Editor in the subject line and touch on the topic of your choice. Thank you so much for reading. Stay well. Remember to keep your feet on the ground and your face to the sun.

About Sally Fallon Morell, MA

Sally Fallon Morell, MA, is the President of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Sally is likely best known as the author of the best-selling cookbook, Nourishing Traditions®: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. This well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods contains a startling message: animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. This book was recently published in Spanish and is available as “Tradiciones Culinarias.”